Happy Halloween!

Just to drive my liberal friends batty:



Hat tip: Mike's America

Flying Imam Settlement Makes Us Less Safe

The case of the Flying Imams reached a settlement; and it favors political correctness and misguided views on profiling and religious sensitivities over common sense.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which represented the imams, said the settlement is "a victory for civil rights."

"The six imams are pleased," Hooper said. "Their rights were maintained by the settlement."

This is no victory for civil rights. These imams gave reasonable cause for alarm, based as much upon behavioral profiling as much as religious and ethnic profiling. The settlement sends a message that favors stupidity over safety:
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Socialists: A ♥ Story

Another celebrity romance falls to pieces:

By Guy Adams

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

He's crossed swords, over the years, with all the usual right-wing suspects, from car-makers to gun owners to Wall Street executives, health companies, and George W Bush. Now Michael Moore has picked a fight with a hero of the international left.

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Mood of the Country

Obama moving the country further right? Are more Americans identifying themselves as conservative?

Dithering Democrats...

This is the moment....when Senator John Kerry, who served in Vietnam and currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday that he opposes sending more troops unless conditions on the ground improve in Afghanistan. I'd say that's the basic gist of it. I think James Dobbins states it very well:

James Dobbins, who served as a special envoy to Afghanistan during the Bush administration and is now at the Rand Corp., said that Kerry had made many "sensible" points in the speech but that he found the conclusion unsatisfactory.

"The argument seems to be that we're not going to send more troops until we start winning -- which seems to me to be an inversion of the usual sequence," he said.

This is the moment....when on the same day, Nobel Peace Laureate, President Obama, gave an address at the Naval Air Station Jacksonville, in part to offer a statement on the 14 Americans who lost their lives in two helicopter crashes in Afghanistan.

"I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary," Obama said to loud applause. "And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt."

The problem I have with this, is that we already have troops in theater in "harm's way", in what he claimed as a "war of necessity"; and his top general whom he had chosen is requesting reinforcements. And the dithering Democrat appears to want to vote "present".

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Those evil obscene profit health insurers

A Democrat boogieman myth. AP finally reports (albeit on a Sunday) on the fact that health insurers have posted a 2.2% profit margin, placing them 35th on Fortune 500's list of top industries. Contrast this to the 14% that trial lawyers have made:

In comparison, trial lawyers showed a profit margin of almost 14%, six times that of the health insurers. Do Democrats scream about villainous trial lawyers and windfall profits taxes on those that exploit the legal system and drive prices up across all American industries? No, because the trial lawyers share a good portion of their filthy lucre with Democrats.

Sunday Funnies

More at Flopping Aces

The Decider and the Ditherer

Bookworm Room offers a study in contrast

The Gitmo Music Awards

And the winner for most torturous sounds to a jihadi's ears is.....

Was the theme to "Sesame Street" really played to torture prisoners held at Guantanamo and other detention camps? What about Don McLean's "American Pie"? Or the Meow Mix jingle? Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."?

A high-profile coalition of artists -- including the members of Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and the Roots -- demanded Thursday that the government release the names of all the songs that were blasted since 2002 at prisoners for hours, even days, on end, to try to coerce cooperation or as a method of punishment.

Dozens of musicians endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the National Security Archive, a Washington-based independent research institute, seeking the declassification of all records related to the use of music in interrogation practices. The artists also launched a formal protest of the use of music in conjunction with torture.

"I think every musician should be involved," said Rosanne Cash in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It seems so obvious. Music should never be used as torture." The singer-songwriter (and daughter of Johnny Cash) said she reacted with "absolute disgust" when she heard of the practice. "It's beyond the pale. It's hard to even think about."

Other musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Tom Morello, formerly of the band Rage Against the Machine, also expressed outrage.

"The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," Morello said in a statement. "We need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."

I agree Morello's music is sickening. But do these moralizers understand what real torture is? And that Guantanamo today is the world's most humane detention facility, thanks in no small part to their efforts in making it the most heavily scrutinized?
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Darth Cheney vs. Obama "The One" Kenobi

Give 'im both barrels, Mr. Vice President!

Democrats Fighting the "Good Fight", for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"!

"it is a plain fact of American political life today that Democrats are completely dependent on black votes. The day African Americans stop casting 80 to 95 percent of their votes for Democrats is the day Democrats stop winning elections."
- Mona Charen, Do-Gooders


In the Age of Obama, racism has no place in America. Therefore, if a white girl wins a beauty pageant at a historically all-black university, it will be celebrated as a historic first; or, not made a big deal of at all, since she would have been judged upon the merits of her beauty, regardless of the color of her skin. As the previous pageant winner, Patrece Parson, expresses it, she was

‘very shocked’ at the judge’s choice of a white woman, adding: ‘We’ve never had one before’.

Hmmm....I wonder if she had the same "very shocked" reaction at the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land, as "we've never had one before" [i.e., a "black" president].

In Kinston North Carolina, in Barack's America, comes news of the following:

Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

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White House Declares War!

"The biggest bunch of crybabies" has launched a counterinsurgency campaign against FOX News.

If FOX News had aired a White House infomercial on healthcare, would the White House have declared war on FOX News?

If Chris Wallace had decided FOX too would run a factcheck on a comedy skit, would FOX be in the White House cross-hairs?

If FOX had joined the rest of the MSM club in ignoring the Van Jones story and not aired the undercover videos of ACORN,

Perhaps if Sean Hannity got a thrill up his leg over Obamamania, then The One would not have snubbed FOX from inclusion in his 5 interview-weekend blitzkrieg.

But no...instead, FOX does a good deal of what the other star-struck networks have failed to do: Provide a critical look at the Obama Presidency and act in the role of a watchdog press.

62% say that criticism of political leaders is worthwhile because it keeps those leaders from doing things that should not be done, while 22% say such criticism keeps leaders from doing their jobs.

What if the MSM gave proper coverage vetting of candidate Obama in '08?

Posts to reflect upon:

UPDATED! The Ties That Bind…The NYT’s Kills Story To Protect Obama Before Election

VDH: MSM Unprofessional Lobbying For Obama Will, In A Decade Or Two, Become Case Study In Graduate Classes On Journalistic Ethics

Mark Halperin: MSM Bias For Obama Worst In Recent History

The WaPo Tries To Buy Back Some Of It’s Credibility

The Suppression Of Bad Obama News By Our MSM

Where Did the Public Get the Idea that McCain is Running A Negative Campaign?

Excellent commentary by Jim Pinkerton:



Transcript:
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Sunday Funnies

More at Flopping Aces

The White House Watchdog Looks to Mao for Philosophical Inspiration

Ah, yes....the "White House Watchdog." . It's that evil FOX News and Glenn Beck, again!!! Wonder how she's going to spin this one away?

Interestingly enough, I don't think she'll be with the Administration much longer:

Inside the youthful Obama administration's communications shop, Dunn, 51, is valued as a D.C.-certified grownup, a mentor whose battle scars, survival skills and librarian glasses perched atop her blond hair give her gravitas. It's one thing to have championed Obama's election, but she's the only one in the inner circle who's actually worked against him.

Long a shunner of the spotlight, Dunn, who declined to comment for this article, would only sign on in April as an "interim" chief, with an end-of-the-year expiration date on her current tenure. But giving up nominal power in the White House allows Dunn to do the dirty work that ultimately assures her staying power inside the administration.

A source inside the White House, who was not authorized to speak about strategy meetings, said Dunn went out front against Fox first and foremost because it was her job, but also because it potentially gave the administration the opportunity to distance itself from the flap with the Roger Ailes-led news channel once she leaves the communications job.

On a strategy team largely dominated by men, she's acknowledged to be the toughest member.

According to the Washington Post, this lifelong political consultant is the only person in the communications department that "can withstand the blowback." A veteran of the Obama campaign, she started work in Democratic politics in the Carter administration, and worked on John Glenn and Bill Bradley's failed presidential bids. She's known as a ruthless and smart strategist who is not afraid to fight with the media.

But there's another reason she was picked for the Fox News fight — she's only an interim communications director, filling in until the end of the year. If this whole skirmish backfires on Obama, she'll be gone in two months and the administration will have time to distance itself. In other words, the communication team's toughest member is also their sacrificial lamb.

Taliban’s Pre-emptive Counter-Offensive in Pakistan

A member of the Pakistani Taliban offers prayer as his his gun lies in front him at a mosque in the Buner district, northwest of Islamabad, April 23, 2009.
REUTERS/Stringer


While the Pakistan military is reportedly gathering itself into launching a major (counter)offensive, causing thousands to flee Waziristan, the Taliban continues to take the fight to the Pakistan government:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Militants dressed in police uniforms simultaneously attacked three law enforcement agencies in Lahore on Thursday morning, the fifth major attack in Pakistan in the last 10 days.

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Well....Duh

U.S. President Barack Obama while signing executive orders about the closing of the military prison at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, in the Oval Office on second official day at White House in Washington, January 22, 2009.
REUTERS/Larry Downing

The White House is only now admitting to this?

With little hope for meeting President Obama's deadline for closing the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, a new message is emerging from the administration: Disregard our timetable.

"We're not focused on whether or not the deadline will or won't be met on a particular day," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Maybe they shouldn't have had the big photo-op EO signing, then.

Benchmarks...timetables.....broken campaign promises from the Pied Piper of Hope and Change....oh well.
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Qué han hecho con mi país?

Ward Churchill (remember him?) references the book, Smallpox and the American Indian, during his testimony in his civil suit against the University of Colorado at the City and County Building in Denver, Colorado March 23, 2009. Churchill is suing the University of Colorado for wrongful termination.
AP photo.

Today, I picked up 2 kids I carpool to the gymnastics club from their magnet school, as I do every Monday. Apparently, there was no mention about Columbus Day. Nada. Zippo. Nothing negative or positive. But they did watch a performance by dancers dressed like Mayan/Aztec Indians; and the older one said it was "Latino Heritage month".

This school was closed for Yom Kippur. But they were open today, with no mention of Columbus, but did celebrate "Latino heritage". Oooookaaay.....

I'm recognizing my country, less and less, as time moves on....

While Federal government offices in Washington, D.C. are closed for Columbus Day, students in Maryland, just a few miles away, have a full school day. What was once a guaranteed day off from work is now a gamble, with many schools and workplaces open on Columbus Day.

Columbus Day is not commemorated universally. Federal and state offices are closed, the United States Postal Service will not deliver mail, and many banks are shuttered.

But public schools in large cities like Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas are open, while in Washington, DC, New York City and Chicago they are closed

It has been a growing trend for more than 20 years.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

Where are Today's Sunday Funnies?!

Due to some uploading issues this morning, Sunday Funnies won't be ready until this evening. In the meantime, caption these.

Saturday posts

Thomas Ricks has a detailed account of the battle in Nuristan.

Our imperialist military interventionism at work.

Why is the Obama Administration all "wee-weed" up on FOX News?

Who else was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year?

Meet Dr. Sima Samar.

Friday posts

The Code Pink Awakening

George Bush delivers a very pro-American speech.

I’m thrilled. I blame/credit Bush, btw.

Obama joins the great ranks of Jimmy Carter, Yasser Arafat and Al Gore, for nomination alone. Being nominated 2 weeks in…what had he done? Deliver pretty promises?

Before his election, he was promising to prosecute more aggressively, the war efforts in Afghanistan. Made some tough talk bluster on Pakistan to bolster himself away from the “Democrats are weak on national security” image.

And so many of his enraptured supporters saw him as the bringer of peace who would end war and suffering.

….Just from selectively hearing him talk. The rest coming from overactive imaginations.

Here's my post.

The New Way Forward: Shifting the Goal Posts in the GWoT?

With talks of "exit strategy" and "narrower focus", it's like the nation with the greatest military on the planet is throwing in the white towel of surrender to these thuggish clowns:



Taliban fighters ride on their motor bikes in an undisclosed location in the south of Afghanistan May 13, 2008.
REUTERS/Stringer

From the AP by way of ALLAHPUNDIT:

Obama’s developing strategy on the Taliban will “not tolerate their return to power,” the senior official said in an interview with The Associated Press. But the U.S. would fight only to keep the Taliban from retaking control of Afghanistan’s central government — something it is now far from being capable of — and from giving renewed sanctuary in Afghanistan to al-Qaida, the official said…

Bowing to the reality that the Taliban is too ingrained in Afghanistan’s culture to be entirely defeated, the administration is prepared, as it has been for some time, to accept some Taliban role in parts of Afghanistan, the official said. That could mean paving the way for Taliban members willing to renounce violence to participate in a central government — though there has been little receptiveness to this among the Taliban. It might even mean ceding some regions of the country to the Taliban…

Obama kept returning to one question for his advisers: Who is our adversary, the official said.

Should we be drawing a distinction between al Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups? Between al Qaeda and the Taliban? ALLAHPUNDIT also links to an excellent piece by Thomas Joscelyn & BIll Roggio:

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Latest posts

I've been bad at updating my own blog. I have been posting:

Cloudy with Zero Chance of Raining Candy

A watered-down surge?

Historic Cultural Heritage and Freedom of Religious Expression

Photo of the Day

The People are the Prize

Zombieland at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Photo-Op of the Day: Obama’s White Coats

MSM Factchecking SNL's Comedy Skit?!

Brett Michael Dykes writing for Yahoo! News Blog:

This weekend "Saturday Night Live" opened with Fred Armisen as President Obama, delivering an address from the Oval Office. Noting up front that he'd failed to secure the 2016 Olympic Games for Chicago, Armisen's Obama said it was just further proof that his detractors' fears are unfounded: How could he transform the country into something resembling the former Soviet Union or Nazi Germany when he's failed to accomplish anything at all? "When you look at my record," he said, "it's very clear what I've done so far, and that is nothing."

But are SNL's accusations of Obama being a do-nothing president accurate? Let's run down the list of the nine promises SNL lampooned President Obama for doing "nothing" on to see where he actually stands.

Bookworm factchecks this yahoo's "fact"check. The SNL skit is pretty spot-on; but more importantly: IT'S A COMEDY SKIT!!!! HELLO?!?!

As Curt asks,

Did they fact check the Palin skits?

Nope.

Have they fact checked ANY snl skits?

But when they attack their messiah they suddenly decide to fact check a comedy show.

CNN covering this is simply disgraceful and embarrassing. Especially in light of never giving such attention to all the latenight comedy regarding President Bush, and whether or not the comedy had any veracity to stand on. Just amazing how clueless media elites are at failing to see themselves in the mirror.

Partisanship, Politics, and Patriotism

Being the loyal opposition carries with it, great responsibility.

MSNBC Hypocrisy

The media elites are so blind. Where were they on civility for the past 8 years? Oh, yeah: They were part of the contributing problem.

"The election broke their brains". That applied to liberal Democrats after the 2000 Election.

Hat tip: Always on Watch: Semper Vigilans

The Whole Tree is Nuts!

Now will Congress investigate ACORN?

Sunday Funnies

More Sunday Funnies at Flopping Aces

Saturday Posts

Afghanistan's Black Hawk Down incident.

U.S. withholding foreign aid from Somali Islamists

CIA Surge into Afghanistan

Photo of the Day

The IOC Rejects Obama's Groveling. Must be Because They are Racists!

Nice job, Mr. President.

Kanye weighs in.

Now get back to presidenting.

How to Save Obama's Presidency

Nothing short of a GOP takeback of Congress.